LONGRANGE 6.5-284

Planning on building another rifle for longrange shotting/hunting but not sure about details.Here's what I'M thinking-6.5/284 on rem action,30in. Lilja barrel,UARS stock,NF 5.5-22 power scope.What range will this setup be able to cositantly kill small southern deer.these are in now set so any sugesstions will be apreacated. [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Sniper-
Good choice on the 30 inch barrel. If you launch a 140 grain JLK match bullet which has a BC of .645 at 3,000 fps (easily obtainable), you will have about 1,100 ft. lbs. of energy at 900 yards. That is more than enough for whitetail and you could probably load some rounds hotter (3150 or so) and move out to a thousand. It is a fantastically accurate round and would serve you well.

I am building one know close to that without the 30 inch tube. I am going 26. From what I have gathered there is not much velocity to be gained with the 30 inch barrel. I plan on using mine as a hunting rifle and a did not want that much weight or legnth on the rifle. But 1000 yards is no problem I have a fair amount of data if you want I could e-mail it to you. Prime time is right on the money it is a very accurate round. There is a smith here in MI that builds them , and does most of sinclairs custom work. He is building mine as well. I can pass along that info to you as well let me know. Tn is a ways from MI. But I have sent my guns to FL for work before.

Steve, As per the added length of the 30" barrel, my shooting friends and I have found that, the difference of 4 more inches will give at LEAST 100 FPS in almost any caliber.
100 FPS additional velocity works out to at least a 21" (using the 6.5 bullet, 155 gr, at 2900 and 3000 fps) flatter shooting gun at 1000 yards.
I know that John Hoover (shoots nothing but 6.5/284) who is an excellent shooter at Williamsport, maintains 2950 to 3050 FPS with 30" barrels and 140 to 142 gr bullets on all 4 guns that his family uses at the club matches.
30" barrels are a bit long to most hunters/shooters who have been used to 22 to 26" most of their life.
Point is, it's worth the added length for longrange shooting if a velocity gain can be made and 100 fps is certainly worth that additional 4" of barrel steel.

Prime, As per the BC of the 6.5 bullet, I can only come up with a .615 for the 155 Gr Sierra MK and .585 for the Sierra 142 MK.
If JLK is advertising the 142 at higher then that (.655), I will have to adjust my records as per his listing.
Please double check that listing, if it's true, I will shoot some of those bullets in my 6.5s AGAIN.

Darryl-
John Hoover told me about the JLK bullets. I know he really likes them and you know how well he has done. I am quite sure he told me the bc was .645 but you would have to call JLK to make sure as my memory has failed me before. With a bc that high, it would certainly shoot flat and maintain pretty good energy at a thousand yards.
Take care
Sam

For what its worth, Hornady used to list a BC of .660 for the 140gn 6.5 Amax. More recently they have revised this back to .618, but my shooting of this bullet shows the actual BC to be closer to the .660 as originally stated.

The Amax has shot quite well for me, though they do need to be sorted. Having said that, I believe any factory bullet needs to be sorted for long range work.